One of my favorite nonprofits is in a pickle. And a common pickle it is indeed. A board member suggested a smallish event a few months ago, it is now crunch time. The staff didn’t get the invites out on time. The board has a bit of post-holiday malaise and bloat and the event chair is going ballistic. Where is all the support that was promised? Or was it?

Here is the most common scenario: A board member says, in best Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney fashion, let’s put on a golf tournament, skeet shoot, wine tasting, wild boor hunt, you fill in the blank. The board hears, “I will put on the event.” The board member thinks she is saying, “Together, WE will put on the event.” Everyone agrees to the event, a date is set, and then fast forward, its crunch time. The board is dismayed that the event chair expects the board member to bring 10 people. A few of the board members confide, “The truth is, This really isn’t my kind of thing, you know!.” This is the stuff of antacid commercials.

How to avoid this? If this is a small event and you are counting on the board rather than a committee to bring in the guests, take ten minutes, ask the board for a conservative count and ask them how many people they can deliver that night. Take names and write it down. If you want 150 to attend and the board can deliver 37, this might just be the wrong event, wrong evening, wrong committee. This one step will make all the difference.

About us

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Carol Weisman is president of Board Builders. She is an internationally known speaker, author, trainer and consultant who specializes in volunteerism, fund raising and governance. She has worked with a wide range of clients and has served on 28 boards and has been president of 7. She is author of “Raising Charitable Children” and working on another book about fundraising.

David Strom has spoken around the world at numerous conferences from Sydney to Caracas to Tokyo and back. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows such as ABC World News Tonight and NPR’s Science Friday talking about technology. He has started dozens of magazines — including being editor-in-chief at Tom’s Hardware and Network Computing, and now an editor at Baseline Magazine — and contributed to many technology Web sites.